The much-delayed hearing on a plea by the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena’s plea seeking the disqualification of 16 Sena MLAs will begin on Thursday afternoon, with Maharashtra Speaker Rahul Narwekar directing all 54 MLAs to remain present in the central hall of Vidhan Bhavan in south Mumbai for the hearing.
Chief Minister Eknath Shinde — who engineered the rebellion against then chief minister and Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray and 15 other Sena MLAs in June last year with the help of the then Opposition BJP — are among the 54 Sena MLAs who have been summoned for Thursday ‘s hearing.
On his part, the Speaker — who has summoned all the 54 Sena MLAs for the hearing —- has not specified the procedure that he has evolved to decide on a plea for the disqualification of the 16 Sena MLAs who are part of the Eknath Shinde camp.
If anything, the Speaker has gone on record saying that the adjudication on a plea for disqualification of 16 Shinde Sena MLAs was a “quasi-judicial procedure”, that he would take as per the provisions of the Constitution and that all MLAs would be given an opportunity to vote. He has not elaborated on what is voting all about and how he would go about the entire exercise. It is also not clear yet whether the hearing would be completed in one sitting or will there be more sittings.